Bruce Ely/The OregonianGreg Oden has spent more time on crutches, as he was before a game last season, than on the court, taking the legs out from under the Trail Blazers' master plan.

TUALATIN -- The Trail Blazers practice ended on Wednesday with Greg Oden appearing in the weight room, using a pair of canes to support himself as he scooted along.

Oden was an integral part of the plan this season. So, too, was three-time All-Star Brandon Roy, who is working around his own knee issue. And it's become clear that this organization has arrived at its moment of truth.

The Blazers must be bold today.

They have to do things that may feel uncomfortable.

The time for patience and process has passed, and we're now at a place in which the organization needs a valiant gunslinger who can make the four or five moves necessary to clean up this mess. Because being stagnant now means being left behind, and this is an organization that needs to seize its future or risk being left out.

Remember when former general manager Bob Whitsitt traded Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter? People shrieked. But he followed that move by trading an aging Rod Strickland for Rasheed Wallace. And five seasons later, the Blazers found themselves playing in back-to-back Western Conference Finals.

Those kind of gutsy moves, and not the accumulation of distant draft picks, or promises that the organization is doing everything it can, is what Portland needs today. Starting over and blowing up the roster isn't an option. Neither is standing still.

So is there a gunslinger on staff?

A "Trader Bob" clone?

General manager Rich Cho wasn't available for comment Wednesday. But I'm thinking that the bold directive is going to have to come from above his pay grade, and above, too, the position Larry Miller holds as team president. I'm talking to you Paul Allen. If there is an ounce of thrillseeker in your billionaire body, this would be a good time to call upon it.

The Blazers 2010 first-round draft picks (Elliot Williams and Luke Babbitt) were a disaster. A league executive told me on Wednesday that Roy has minimal trade value right now because the league-mandated insurance policy that covers Roy's $80 million contract has an exclusion for his knees because it was a pre-existing knee condition.

Also, when the Blazers signed Roy to that maximum contract, they didn't take the shrewd step of writing an exclusion into the deal for his knees. That alone has to make you wonder.

"Roy's a good player," the executive said, "but I can't sell that trade upstairs with no insurance on the knee."

So yeah. This is a time for dramatic measures. A time for big moves. And don't let anyone tell you that Portland doesn't have bargaining chips that could take them from being the No. 7-8-9 team in the Western Conference to being a Top 4 team again. The only question is whether they have enough adventurous spirit and willingness to do something enterprising.

LaMarcus Aldridge has big-time value. He'd be the bargaining chip most likely to bring a major shift. And his game isn't strong enough to make him untouchable.

Include Andre Miller and Joel Przybilla among those who should be on the trading block as well. Miller, 34, has a team option for next season and is playing the best basketball of anyone on the team. And Pryzbilla is the team's most physical player. Again, we're talking uncomfortable, but necessary, moves. But Miller and Przybilla both have expiring contracts. In the hands of a bold, capable front office, these are golden chips.

As good as Miller and Przybilla have been, as fun as they've been, if this organization is going to save itself, it must part ways with some of the good guys.

Trade Rudy Fernandez, too. The Spanish guard may not be squawking about more minutes and openly demanding a trade, but if the Blazers want to get a thing for him, they have to understand that the clock is ticking and it's probably time to trade him for a late first-round draft pick lest they lose him anyway.

Comprende?

Right now, as you ask questions of the people in positions of influence with this team, you understand that there isn't a plan in place. The plan was Oden and Roy and lots of backslapping. But that blew up in surgery. The half-court team that was supposed to grow into a formidable bunch now looks like it's too old in key spots, and too hobbled in others, to compete much longer.

We were told when Whitsitt left that the organization was going to clean itself up, get players the city could be proud of, and win lots of games. But if you look at the roster in its current form, and look back at the team that Whitsitt left behind, we can't reasonably say that the organization is in a better place today than it was then on any basis other than character.

The Blazers are further away from winning big than they've been in almost a decade. And what I don't think they realize is that they're going to have to overcome some teams that know what they're doing in order to get back to the top. This is no time to be afraid.

Do the Blazers know what they're doing?

That's become the question to ask around One Center Court. And when you do, you mostly get shrugs, and cries for patience. But when you ask around the NBA, what you get from those who understand what it takes to win is that the Blazers now need to do something inspired.

Get busy living. Or get busy losing.

Coach Nate McMillan is at a quiet impasse, too, with ownership. The public line is that the sides have mutually agreed to wait until the end of the season to talk about an extension for the coach. McMillan said so himself at practice. But a source in Seattle at Allen's Vulcan Inc. says, "Nate pushed for an extension in the summer and was told to come back at the end of the season."

The organization has a scapegoat already in place, see?

This isn't McMillan's fault. Because I suspect if you left the personnel moves to the coach, there's enough gunslinger in McMillan to do something about this mess. He's a competitive guy who won't quit. But I'm not so sure about Allen and the Vulcans.

The front office and marketing arm must realize that fans are growing impatient. The sales staff must already feel season-ticket holders trying to determine if they're interested in keeping their seats or cutting back in 2011-2012. Ultimately, maybe it's those consumer decisions -- ones that really hurt the franchise -- that force the Blazers to do something ambitious.